Switched to a heat pump water heater and my electric bill went up $40

I swapped out my old gas water heater for a heat pump model back in March, thinking I'd save money and cut emissions. After three months, my electric bill is actually $40 higher than it was before. The installer didn't mention that my basement is too cold in the winter, so the unit runs way longer to heat the same amount of water. Has anyone else run into this problem with cold climate installations?

3 comments

3 Comments

nora_park27d ago

Hang on @mila_murphy21, but I gotta push back a little here. Dip switches are a fine starting point, but they're not gonna fix the core issue of a basement that's too cold. That heat pump has to work way harder to pull heat out of the air when the space is sitting at 50 degrees or lower... it's like trying to wring water out of a dry towel. I've seen people mess with dip switches for hours only to end up with a unit that keeps freezing up or running constant defrost cycles. The real fix is either insulating the basement better or adding a small space heater to warm up the area around the water heater, which kind of defeats the whole savings purpose. Honestly, if the installer didn't check the ambient temperature where you're putting it, that's a basic mistake on their end.

mila_murphy2127d ago

Check if your heat pump's dip switches are set for cold climate operation.

eric_knight727d ago

Yeah, "check your dip switches" is definitely solid advice for most setups, but I'm gonna throw a wrench in here. Most people don't realize that some heat pumps, especially older Rheem and Goodman models, have dip switches that are labeled backwards or use a 1-2-3 numbering system that makes no sense unless you have the specific manual. I had a buddy with a 2015 unit who flipped a switch marked "cold climate" and it actually locked his compressor into a constant defrost loop. Also, if your outdoor unit sits in a wind tunnel between two houses, dip switches won't fix the airflow issue. Have you checked if your particular model has any known firmware quirks with those settings?